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Data was sourced from NOAA. Dataset is from an ocean buoy off the coast of Morro Bay, and contains meteorological information from 2023. I want to use this to examine the following questions:

1. What atmospheric and ocean-level factors contribute to larger waves?
2. What time of year and day have the best waves?
3. How can we visualize all of this data in a day-to-day manner?

In the dataset, wave height is measured in meters and wind speed is measured in meters per second unless specified otherwise. Wave quality will be determined by wave size and wind speed.

The dataset did not require much cleaning, mainly creating new variables for season and date. Additionally some filtering was required for some missing data. A new dataset was created for “optimal waves”. Optimal waves were determined by a wave height greater than 2 meters, wind speed less than 3 meters per second, and a dominant swell interval greater than 12 seconds. This analysis also includes a dataset examining 3 days in a row in order to answer question 3.

Variable definitions:

WDIR_degT - Wind direction (the direction the wind is coming from in degrees clockwise from true N) during the same period used for WSPD.

WSPD_m.s - Wind speed (m/s) averaged over an eight-minute period for buoys and a two-minute period for land stations.

GST_m.s - Peak 5 or 8 second gust speed (m/s) measured during the eight-minute or two-minute period.

WVHT_m - Significant wave height (meters) is calculated as the average of the highest one-third of all of the wave heights during the 20-minute sampling period.

DPD_sec - Dominant wave period (seconds) is the period with the maximum wave energy.

MWD_degT - The direction from which the waves at the dominant period (DPD) are coming. The units are degrees from true North, increasing clockwise, with North as 0 (zero) degrees and East as 90 degrees.

PRES_hPa - Sea level pressure (hPa).

Link to data source:

https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/download_data.php?filename=46028h2023.txt.gz&dir=data/historical/stdmet/

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